An Unnamed Taxpayer Owes The Government Rs 21,870 Crore For The Assessment Year 2014-15

In 2014-15, an unnamed taxpayer had owed the government Rs 21,870 crore which was equivalent to 11% of the income tax to be paid by all Indians, according to a report released by the Income Tax Department.

While three individual taxpayers had declared Government business assets of more than Rs 500 crore, two individual taxpayers declared long-term capital gains of over Rs 500 crore in 2014-15 (for the year 2013-14). However, the names of the taxpayers have not been made public.

According to data published by Oxfam, the richest 1% of Indians own 58% of India’s wealth while 57 billionaires have the same wealth as the bottom 70% of India.

As per the US government data, the top 1% in the US accounted for 19% of income and 38% of taxes paid.

Oxfam further reported that the wealth of 388 people equalled that of the poorest half of the world’s population in 2010, and this has narrowed to only 62 in 2015.

India had 36.5 million individual taxpayers who declared taxable income worth Rs 16.5 lakh crore and were liable to pay Rs 1.91 lakh crore as income tax — an increase of 23% and 37%, respectively, over the assessment year 2013-14.

Over 36 million Indians declared a salary income of nearly Rs 9.8 lakh crore in 2014-15, the equivalent of 7% of the gross national income of Rs 134.2 lakh crore in 2015-16, followed by the business income of Rs 5.6 lakh crore and income from other sources at Rs 2.4 lakh crore.

The maximum tax payable (Rs 43,964 crore) was concerning income below Rs 1,50,000 annually, followed by a tax payable of Rs 17,926 crore in the tax slab of Rs 5,50,000- Rs 9,50,000.

In 2014-15, there were 64 taxpayers who had a tax liability of more than Rs 500 crore, with a total tax that was payable at Rs 1,13,068 crore. This was 25% of the total tax payable.

Income Tax Department data show the collection of income tax (including securities transaction tax) increased nine times to Rs 2.9 lakh crore in 2015-16 from Rs 31,764 crore in 2000-01.

Maharashtra and Delhi accounted for 53% of all direct taxes collected in 2015-16, IndiaSpend reported in May 2016.

The article was originally published by indiaspend.org.

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